


Back Soon

by Miri1984



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Multi, Suicide mention, taako is pretty mad at lucretia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 04:15:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miri1984/pseuds/Miri1984
Summary: “Your elves cook a great meal,” the man, Gregor, says, waving a fork at them. Lup, of course, cocks a fist on her hip and rolls her eyes.“Of course we fucking do.”The man’s smirk deepens, as he looks, not at Lup, but at Taako, who feels a flicker of that thing… that … possibility.“You don’t need both of them, surely?” the man says.Kerr shrugs. “Package deal,” he says. “Both of them, or neither.”





	Back Soon

The first time he loses her they are young. He possibly could put an age to it if pressed, but when it came to elf childhood there was a bundle of years where you were “babies” and then a bundle of years where you were mobile and had to be contained or tracked magically then a few more where you were almost sentient and then…

Well.

Their parents never got to the later stages so Lup and Taaco don’t have many memories of those times, times when they were tracked diligently, cared for as though they were the focus of the adults around them rather than just an irritant to be brushed off and put to use.

But they’re young the first time. Young enough that Lup still has to explain to some people something that Taako has always known, that she’s not his brother, she’s his _sister._ Young enough that the tiny differences and mannerisms that end up separating them enough that people who know them can tell them apart haven’t developed.

He wakes up, one night, and she isn’t there. That’s something that doesn’t happen. That’s wrong. That’s… terrifying.

Fear isn’t something he’s felt before. There is literally nothing they have to be afraid of, not when they’re together, they’re _Taako_ and they’re _Lup_ and they are unstoppable, but this is where Taako realises for the first time that fear, for him, simply means _alone._

She slips back into their bedroll a few minutes later, nudges him in the ribs as bony arms and legs arrange themselves into a comfortable position. He doesn’t even know why, this time, her slipping outside to piss or get water or whatever was enough to trigger panic, but something shifts in him, after that. Something shifts and he is nervous whenever she is out of his sight.

#

The second time he loses her they are on the road. Their aunt has finally gotten sick of magical fires in the barn and abortive attempts at eggs benedict or croque monsieurs and they’re old enough, they really are, they KNOW shit, they know cooking and they know how to make themselves invaluable, with a smile and a flash of charm and magic and _talent_ oh gods they have talent pouring off them and it’s easy, it’s so easy to hitch a ride and make themselves invaluable, make a name, become known as _the twins._

They cook a meal, for a traveller who eyes them over with keen, appraising eyes as he sits at the fire with Kerr, the ringmaster of the circus they’re travelling with at the moment. 

“Your elves cook a great meal,” the man, Gregor, says, waving a fork at them. Lup, of course, cocks a fist on her hip and rolls her eyes.

“Of course we fucking do.”

The man’s smirk deepens, as he looks, not at Lup, but at Taako, who feels a flicker of that thing… that … possibility.

“You don’t need both of them, surely?” the man says. 

Kerr shrugs. “Package deal,” he says. “Both of them, or neither.”

He looks back down at his plate, seemingly happy enough with that, as he sops the last of the sauce up with Lup’s best bread.

“We only go together!” He’d said, proud and tall, Lup’s hand in his as they offered their services, and Kerr had laughed and said he didn’t want both, and then he’d tried their bread and his eyes had glazed over and Lup had hit him with their charm and they’d gotten the best berth and the best supplies and life was good and…

#

Taako wakes with his hands bound in front of him head clouded and groggy, pain between his shoulder blades. There are voices whispering urgently above him, he can make out the words “market” and “good price”.

“I thought you said there were two of them?”

“The girl was too hard to catch,” the man from last night says. “Speedy as fuck. I had to shoot her.”

Taako’s stomach flips and he pulls at his bound wrists. _LUP._ Slavers targeted caravans sometimes. He should have realised. 

“What about Kerr?”

Gregor snorts. “Dumb circus anyway,” he says. “No one will miss it.”

They shot Lup. _They shot Lup_ , she’s hurt, she’s dea… she’s _hurt._

They don’t realise it yet, but they hurt Lup, and that means they’re all going to die.

#

Of course, they didn’t hurt Lup, she _is_ too fast, too clever, too _Lup,_ and when she appears in front of them, palms out, raining fire, Taako (who has, of course, been formulating an elaborate plan to escape) shouts out loud with relief and pulls his hands free of his bonds (rope? Really? These guys are fucking idiots), running past a startled guard who is quickly a dead guard with Taako’s knife buried in his guts to take his place next to her. Kerr hadn’t ever known they were wizards, it wasn’t something they advertised and this is early in their life and their magic is crude but _oooh boy_ it’s fucking devastating. 

When they’re all dead Lup throws open the doors of the cages and lets the other slaves free. They loot the bodies, Lup throws him a charred hand, laughing and it’s _so gross oh my god_ but he can’t help but laugh with her and the freed slaves edge around them and run, more afraid of these two bright, fierce elves than they were of the men who were going to sell them like cattle.

Taako and Lup continue on the road to town, and it takes a long, long time for Taako to let go of her hand.

#

It’s almost impossible, after that, to separate them. She applies for the institute and he’s right behind her and they study together. When the time comes to be selected for the mission he knows they’re going to take Lup, he knows it in his heart and she sits next to him with his hand clasped in hers, smiling. 

“Both of us,” she says. “Or neither. Right?”

He nods. She won’t go without him, and he won’t go without her.

#

They are separated a lot after that. Too much. He dies before her first (stupid of him, it’s not even in a fight, he just doesn’t get out of the way of a spell) and it’s dark and then she’s sobbing and holding onto him on the deck of the Starblaster and Barry is nervously patting his back behind him. 

“I ah… would try not to do that again, Taako,” Barry says, as Lup starts weakly punching him while she cry/laughs into his chest. 

“Not planning on it, my man,” he replies. 

But they can’t plan on anything, really, not when every world throws something different at them, not when every year the hunger is bigger and closer and they still haven’t worked out how to stop it.

The worst year, she dies at the very beginning. It’s bad because it’s stupid, again, they don’t know enough about the environment and Lup breathes something in that she shouldn’t and they don’t find the antidote in time and she dies less than a week after they land and Taako holds her hand and looks blankly into the trees and realises he’s going to have to be without her for the whole year and he is _angry_ and he is _frightened_ and when the hunger comes he tries (not very hard) to disguise how relieved he is that it’s finally here.

He looks across at Barry and catches a glimpse of the same thing in his friend’s eyes and then she’s back and he can breathe again.

#

The thing is, he knows something is missing. The whole time. He turns to ask someone something, someone who should be there but isn’t. There isn’t enough garlic in a dish, because someone used to always secretly double it when he wasn’t looking. His bedroll is too big, he orders two drinks at the bar, he buys a ridiculous statue of Gruumsh in a store in Neverwinter because it looks like Kerr and he can’t wait to show it to… 

He feels like he’s on the edge of a pit, teetering, about to fall, and every now and then he catches himself because he’s about to just… do it. Just jump, go into the dark, because once you come out the other side, _someone will be there._

#

“You should talk to Lucretia, bro,” she says. 

“Fuck that,” he says, but without any real heat.

“She did it to protect us you know? To save the world?”

He chops an onion in half, aggressively. “Fuck,” he enunciates each word carefully “that.”

She sighs and leaves him to his anger and he almost begs her not to leave the room, because even now when she’s out of his sight his breath comes short and he wonders if he’ll ever see her again.

Lucretia is avoiding him any way. She slides out of rooms when he enters, she talks to _Barry_ more (Barry who forgave her almost immediately, Barry who is complete when Lup is around but somehow able to function when she isn’t) and Taako is fine with that. Magnus tries to tell him to talk to her, Merle tells him to get his head out of his ass, Davenport just looks at him sadly and shakes his head. 

He and Kravitz have a kind of house, now, near the school, but not too near. Kravitz doesn’t exactly live there (Kravitz doesn’t exactly live at all, really) and Taako doesn’t spend a whole lot of time in it, although it’s lavishly furnished and full of everything he might need. Half the time he ends up sleeping in a wagon on the road or at Magnus’ or wherever there’s an inn. Everyone knows him, now, after all, and for fun a few times he’s just knocked on a random person’s door and asked if he can sleep there.

“It’s the luckiest day of your life!” he proclaims. “Taako needs a bed!”

He cooks them breakfast after. No one has ever turned him away.

He wonders, at the edge of his awareness, if he’s trying to be difficult to find. Lup always knows where he is, but the others don’t have her instincts. Tonight, though, he’s at home, and when there is a knock at the door, he knows who it’s going to be.

He briefly considers just not answering it, but Lucretia will be able to tell he’s in here, and it’s probably just… for the best to get it over with.

She’s brought him something. He considers shutting the door on her but that would probably make Magnus sad so he waves her inside.

“Whatcha selling?” he asks.

She smiles. It’s shitty that she looks older than him. Well. Not in that way, since everyone does, really, but the regal crows feet next to her eyes and the mature tilt to her head annoys him. He’s got at least a few decades on her and will still be kicking on when she’s dust.

“I’m not selling anything, Taako,” she says, patiently and he shrugs, heading to the kitchen to pour her a drink. He’s not a savage, after all. 

She sits at the kitchen table, hands folded over the package she’s brought. It looks like a book. 

Of course it’s a fucking book. 

When he puts the drink in front of her she doesn’t pick it up, she just takes a deep breath and pushes the package towards him.

“I’m not going to waste time telling you how sorry I am,” she says. “And I’m not going to ask for your forgiveness. I just want you to know that… that I knew what I did was going to hurt you the most. And I still did it.”

Taako downs the drink in his hand and pours himself another. “Hoo fucking ray for owning your shit, Luce,” he says.

She nods, then stands up, leaving the package on the table. “I just wanted to make sure you knew that,” she says. 

“Aren’t you going to drink your drink?”

She purses her lips, then, and sips it delicately. It’s an apricot brandy he’s been using in some of his better desserts. She’d always loved fruity and sweet when it came to alcohol and he sees a smile flicker across her face as she savours it. “Thank you, Taako,” she says. “I’ll see myself out.”

He stands looking at the package on the table for a few minutes. Maybe a half hour. Time is weird, these days. It goes to fast or doesn’t seem to go at all, and he’s still staring at the package when Kravitz comes home.

“Mmm, someone has a present?” he says, picking it up and handing it to Taako, who already knows what it is. Of course he knows what it is.

Lucretia always chronicled in duplicate. 

It’s a thick volume, and her writing is as small as it can be while still being legible. He’s a little offended, really, that she managed to fit it all into one, although he can see there are signs that she’s had it rebound. Maybe she merged two or three volumes. It’ll be fucking awkward to hold and read, but that doesn’t matter, really. This book… well, it isn’t meant to be read.

She’s written on the inside cover, and he flips it open and reads the inscription while Kravitz smooths hair away from the back of his neck, cold lips pressing against his skin in a way that promises to be a distraction he sorely needs right now.

_This is yours,_ the inscription reads. _I promise I’ll never take it from you again._


End file.
